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They ignored Roberts and a pitched battle ensued with riot police, ­leading to 14 ­arrests.

These days, the fans who follow clubs at home are far less likely to cause a mass ­disturbance than those who follow England abroad, yet most police still treat them primarily as potential ­criminals.

They decree that derby games must be played around noon so no one turns up drunk, which makes ­travelling for some fans ­impossible, and can lead to ugly brawls later in the day which pubs and bouncers have to deal with.

It could be some time before fans are allowed to attend matches again (Image: Action Images via Reuters)

In 2014, Sunderland and Newcastle became so angry with Northumbria Police ­demanding lunchtime ­kick-offs whenever the sides met, they chose to ignore their dictats and agree times that best suited them.

There are many examples of away fans suing police for blocking them attending games.

In 2010, Greater ­Manchester Police paid £200,000 to 80 Stoke City ­supporters who were stopped en route to a match and falsely imprisoned by containment.

So there was no surprise in the police telling the Premier League that, if they want to resume the season, games needed to be in neutral ­venues as far away from fans as ­possible.

No meetings with ­supporter groups were held to see if that was necessary, no evidence produced of the mass congregations they claimed to fear, just a knee-jerk assessment based on making their own lives easier.

Games are set to be played behind closed doors (Image: Action Images via Reuters)

Premier League clubs are finally challenging this and we’re now hearing some ­police forces are fine with games ­returning at home grounds, as is happening in Germany where fans are equally as ­fanatical, and, ­unlike England, there is still a title race to be sorted.

But others, like West ­Midlands Police Commissioner David Jamieson aren’t.

The former MP says it’s ­“inconceivable” that fans, ­including away ones, won’t flock to grounds. Although he’s yet to say whether he’s spoken to any fan groups or knows anyone who would rather get moved on by police outside Molineux than watch the game at home on TV with a drink.

Or if he’s factored in clubs using an army of stewards to block roads and covering any excess police bill, and ­managers, players and fan groups publicly appealing to their people to stay away.

The overriding issue ­determining football’s return should be the safety of ­everyone inside stadiums.

If clubs can reasonably ­guarantee that, players want to play and the Government gives the go-ahead, the ­prospect of a minority of fans breaking lockdown rules should be treated the same as the minority of people ­heading for parks, beaches or house raves.

PSG fans gathered outside the stadium for their Champions League game (Image: NurPhoto/PA Images)

Objectors cite Paris Saint-Germain followers gathering outside the Parc des Princes on March 11, for their closed-door Champions League game with Borussia ­Dortmund, as proof fans can’t be trusted. But that was ­almost a week before France made public gatherings illegal.

All football fans now know the score with this pandemic and are already obeying ­social distancing in supermarkets and bus queues, quite a few mourning people whose funerals they were unable to attend. Some are even ­devoting themselves to ­plugging the PPE gaps left by this Government.

So why, for once, don’t the likes of the West Midlands Police Commissioner engage with fans, instead of citing them as the reason football cannot be allowed to return in their backyard.

Do they believe the only people who don’t possess the “British common sense” that Boris Johnson is calling for in this crisis are ones who watch football?

If so, they won’t be the first to shamefully persuade a Tory prime minister that fans should not be viewed as ­law-abiding citizens but criminals in waiting.

Boris Johnson's latest update has been criticised

I’m still not too sure how rerunning Euro ‘96 in its entirety is something to “bring the country together” as ITV blurbed it in advance.

It started after the drunken shenanigans in the Hong Kong Dentist Chair, with most of the nation wanting football’s “over-paid yobs” charged with treason. Flower of Scotland was loudly booed by England fans at Wembley and there were stories of Braveheart-style assaults on Sassenachs north of the border when Craig Brown’s side were beaten.

Germany defeating England in the semi-finals led to tanked-up gangs attacking dachshunds and overturning BMWs, with more than 300 arrests nationwide, and Trafalgar Square seeing the worst trouble since the Poll Tax riots.

Scots, Welsh and millions of non-football fans whooped with delight at the sight of the kings of laddism, Baddiel and Skinner, in tears.

And afterwards arguments raged about Terry Venables losing his job and how high Gareth Southgate should be strung for joking about his penalty miss in a Pizza Hut advert.

If it really wants to bring the country together, ITV would be better off rerunning the 2016 referendum.

Euro 96 games and highlights have been shown on ITV (Image: Stu Forster/Allsport/Getty Images)

As European football faces a nightmare backlog of fixtures, the most bizarre noise coming out of UEFA is its plan to stick with the Nations League, the unloved tournament brought in to give meaningless friendlies some meaning.

It used to look like the international version of The Watney, Texaco and Screen Sport Super Cup, rolled into one unnecessary waste of time, fixture space and players’ health.

There’s some good news though. With the amount of obstacles and concerns faced by football, bringing it back in the next year could be the final insult that leads to clubs demanding the international calendar is slashed right back.

Watching reruns of FA Cup finals from the past 20 years, a couple of questions on Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium – now Principality Stadium – spring to mind.

How much better was it, on every level – accessibility, location, facilities, atmosphere, acoustics, pitch – than Wembley before and, even more so, after the rebuild?

And, at a cost of £121million in 1999 (£182m in today’s price) for a 75,000-seater ground, has there been a better value-for-money stadium built in Britain?